Humanitarian aid to Haiti has both positive and negative effects on a country that is already in a state of turmoil. Considering the aspects of education, economics, and the political climate in Haiti, and after conducting both academic research and primary source interviews from those affected firsthand by these issues, I concluded that outside aid and volunteerism to Haiti, and other third-world countries like it, is ultimately ineffective.
This research-creation PhD thesis contributes to recent debates about what journalism could (or should) be in today's fast-changing media landscape by focusing on graphic reportage, a journalistic approach that relies on the drawn medium of comics. In order to assess how working in this drawn form might affect the practices that journalists use in their work, I reflect critically on my process of making Picturing Aid in Haiti, a work of graphic reportage about humanitarian interventions in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake.
Haiti has been suffering a multitude of disasters within recent years. In response, multiple countries have decided to support Haiti through financial, medical, and nutritional services. This, coupled with Haiti’s history of environmental and political destabilization, has resulted in a dependency on non-governmental organizations (NGO’s) and foreign support.
This thesis explores how cultural knowledge, beliefs, and practices affected the humanitarian aid response to disasters in Haiti and Aceh Province, Indonesia. It examines the importance of local knowledge in post-disaster response situations and how aid workers’ “expertise” interplays with local knowledge, decision-making structures, and leadership.
For years, scholars have investigated the effectiveness of aid dollars. Some scholars measure aid effectiveness at the country level in terms of achieving good governance, promoting democratic accountability, accomplishing growth goals, or attaining macroeconomic goals.
This dissertation examines the pragmatic effects of discourse about development in Haiti. It focuses on discussions within and beyond two development organizations operating in Port-au- Prince, revealing the ways in which politics and development are intimately entangled.
Americans see themselves as a force for good in the world; many believe that richer nations like our own should help spread our material wealth with those in need, and provide stability to those whose lives are in turmoil.
This thesis problematizes geophysical disasters by examining the human processes that affect the extent of damage incurred by these “natural” events. Using the incredible aftermath of the 7.0 magnitude earthquake in Haiti on January 12, 2010 as a case study, this thesis explores how foreign intervention in its various forms permeated the country from independence to the present day and respectively impacted the scale of devastation.
A Haitian proverb suggests that the country has long been a sliding land, a site of uncertainty and chronic catastrophe. On January 12, 2010, Haiti collapsed suddenly into sudden, telegenic disaster when a devastating earthquake hit its capital, Port-au-Prince, killing hundreds of thousands of people and destroying much of the city.